Generally, a superconducting tape is basically formed by depositing a buffer layer and a superconducting layer on a metal substrate and then depositing a contact resistance reducing layer and a protective layer thereon. This superconducting tape is manufactured by performing a process of previously heat-treating a metal substrate, a process of depositing a buffer layer, a process of depositing a superconducting layer, an oxygen heat-treatment process, a process of depositing a protective layer, and a lamination process.
As a conventional technology for such an apparatus for depositing a superconducting tape, International Application Publication No. WO 2004/012278 A2 discloses “an apparatus for depositing a superconducting material on a tape substrate”. In the apparatus of the conventional technology, vacuum chambers as many the number of the above processes are serially disposed and communicate with each other, and a reel chamber including a supply reel for supplying a tape substrate and another reel chamber including a winding reel for winding a superconducting tape, deposited with a superconducting material, are connected to both ends of the series of vacuum chamber, respectively. As the tape substrate passes through the chambers each corresponding to each of the processes, it is sequentially deposited and heat-treated.
However, a process of manufacturing a superconducting tape using the apparatus has problems in that chamber fabricating costs are increased because chambers as many as the number of the processes are required, the yield of a superconducting tape can be decreased because the winding speed in the chamber having the lowest deposition rate and processing rate must be decreased due to the large number of chambers, and a superconducting tape having desired performance cannot be obtained when process variables depart from an optimum range in even one chamber.
Further, there is a problem in that the temperatures and gas atmospheres, which are the deposition conditions, are different from each other in different chambers, so that a separation chamber for separating the temperatures and atmospheres of the chambers must be additionally included, thereby increasing the unit cost of manufacturing a superconducting tape.